Relevancy of AFN and election of National Chief | APTN InFocus

[Music] good afternoon and welcome to in focus today we're putting the Assembly of First Nations InFocus we want you to join in on our conversation our phone lines are now open call us toll-free at one eight seven seven six four seven two seven eight six you can also tweet us at APTN InFocus use the hashtag AFN now well in the Assembly of First Nations we'll be holding an election for national chief at its annual general meeting in late July in Vancouver Perry Belgard says he will be seeking re-election fortunately Perry bellegarde was unavailable for today's show so was Sheila North the current grand chief of Manitoba Kuwait now Aoki mcnac who says she will be running for national chief as well joining us from Ottawa are two of the candidates who have also made their intentions known I know Russ is for sure with us Russ is a Ghana a mohawk policy analyst writer and activist I understand miles Richardson is not quite showed up yet in Ottawa former president of the Haida nation hopefully he'll be joining us soon both are seeking the role of national chief in studio we have Pam Palmiter pigma lawyer professor and activists also in studio with us is Derrick NEPA enact the former grand chief of the assembly of manitoba chiefs and we also have with us Paul Barnes Lee the executive producer of APTN investigates Paul has been covering the AFN for many years will say Paula and last but not certain certainly not least joining us from Calgary via Skype is lawyer Rachel and snow a critic of the AFN and its current role thank you all for joining us Russ if we could start with you in Ottawa you know little on why you've decided to put your name forward for AFN national chief well I think we're at a critical time the Trudeau agenda is proceeding ahead basically through legislation he's planning a recognition act that's coming I think that that's a danger to our rights because they're going to be defining those through their policies their comprehensive claims policies their self government policy and these new fiscal policies are bringing in and it's my belief they're going to use the the funding to force us into these modern agreements and I see the to me the national chief Perry bellegarde has lost control of the agenda and in the process said the pen and the Trudeau government seems to be in charge of defining what our rights are now Pollard that's why I've decided to run Paul are there other names that you've been hearing out there aside from the previously mentioned names well yeah there's a there's a couple I've heard there's people working on Cindy Blackstock to see if they can get her interested in the job and is it our day so far as saying no but the deadlines now for a few weeks yeah I'd say those are the two biggest names that haven't come to ground yet who knows if they will time yourself many of the stories that are talking about who is going to be running for national chief include you breaking the news to those reporters at scene have you been hearing any other names out there well I heard that Katherine Whitecloud might be throwing her name in aside from the ones that Paul mentioned and the ones that we today I haven't really heard anyone else but you never know sometimes people throw their names in at the last minute for lots of different political strategy reasons to split the votes in certain provinces or to make agreements on the side you never know who will at the last minute I know we've talked about it before Pam but no and that's what's coming from yourself anytime soon no I will not be running again for national chief of the FN darica any names that you're hearing out there I I think we've covered the the gamut of what I've heard out there and you know I want to just send you know my respects and and commend that those folks were brave enough to step up for a for a role that is obviously very challenging and as Russ said it's a very critical time and we need strong leaders to step up at this time but whether or not the FN is the right forum for strong leadership at this time considering the the multitude of perspectives and you know the the resurgence the revitalization of the indigenous voice and the Canadian landscape is well upon us now and whether that FN is the right place to carry that voice remains to be a question to be answered Russ have you received support from the 15 or so Chiefs that you you'll need to get your name on the ballot and are you concerned about getting votes for that given how you've spoken out about the AFN and and termination tables and things of that nature yeah of taking some heat from some Chiefs about my use of the term termination tables but I believe I have my 15 non nominators lined up I'm just waiting for the Elector officer to release the nomination paper so I could start getting signatures to paper Rustin say you are running have you heard any other names who might be your competitors out there just the names you mentioned I was a little surprised to hear that there's a campaign to get Cindy Blackstock involved she'd be a great candidate is the door day I'm I'm pretty sure he would be a good candidate but I don't believe he's gonna run but I but I agree with Grant chief former grand chief Andy Pinnock af and as it's currently structured is not the organization to address our rights it has to be fundamentally changed and starter has to be rewritten something we're certainly going to come back to Rachel you use the hash tag team Russ often on Twitter as a critic of the AFN what is it about Russ that you support a a fan right now is not answering to the true leadership even what you're discussing you're discussing who's running for this one position one post when in reality governance is that the people are the leader so I think that structuring that has happened so that the people are actually the voice of what drives the indigenous future in this country I think that a person like Russ is looking at restructuring I can't see structuring from any other entities coming over and I think with the restructuring what it means is that not one has all power vested empowers Richard Rachel will we have you there you know we're talking about this should it only be the the Chiefs who select a national chief we're gonna get into this it could be longer and the time I put out my analysis that Indian agent who disturbed our traditions governing in our communities and then Indian Act that elections our communities have produced the host of Indian Act chief or Indian agent so with that in agent mentality is not leadership it's a quota mentality it's not the traditional governing it's not a part of the people not spirituality not all the things we talked about that Vegas indigenous so if gonna keep going forward as an issue we actually have to be engaging people with our spirituality third languages but their ceremonies and with their own governance strength and that's not happening no sitting not at the band level level Ashley Pam do you feel there should be a shake-up in the way that the National chief selected yeah I do and and I think that you know the current structure where you have different First Nations you know either by chief or by proxy who might only have 30 band members or 40 band members gets to vote for the National chief in the same way that one first nation that has 20,000 band members vote so you're really talking about a disproportionate amount of power that's really coalesced in a certain number of First Nations in a particular region and that really impacts how the AFN is governed and to whose interests at caters to nowadays I don't think it was ever intended to be that way and I think here's the other danger about your question that you just asked Rachel you might be surprised but I I wouldn't want to effing to set up a structure where they're acting like a national government like a federal government for First Nations where grassroots citizens vote for them and it gives them even more power and more legitimacy and more control over what is essentially our sovereign First Nations I think the AFN is gone well beyond what it used to be when it was the National Indian Brotherhood which was advocacy and have really gone into this empire building and deal-making which shouldn't be doing for the actual sovereign nations on the ground including those people a former grand chief you've come to power I guess in both ways as chief of your community elected by the people and and as AMC Grand chief do you think the way a national chief is selected currently is the way to keep things I think I'd have to echo the same sentiment as Pam in this instance because I think what we're really talking about is the legitimacy of representation and there is a public face of the AFN but when you pull back the curtain as you see that AFN is actually operated as a federal agency and their lines of accountability go back to to the federal funders that oversee their funding so you know to to create a message that goes out to our grassroots community members that says you know vote for a national chief I think that's that's I think a little bit misdirected simply because we don't have an enabling or an empowering governance structure for for a national body that would allow it to I think advocate to that extent and to take on that degree of responsibility I think that the starting point has always been at our home fires and there's many legitimate and solid leaders out there that come from their home fire community that have been lifted and raised up by the women and put into power in the in that way and I think that's where it ties into Rachel's comments as well is that we have to redefine what legitimate representation looks like and figure out whether or not there's a place for that in the national discussion or not well it's been a little over four years since the election of Perry Bell guard to national chief have we seen there been gains do you think for people in that four years and how you define the word I suppose definitely a lot more money going in and out of the AFN headquarters in Ottawa a lot more jobs some people tell me a lot more patronage apparently a useful thing when the government approves of you is the funding levels go up and you can create employment for people who will probably vote for you in the next election that's what I'm told I have no proof of that but I believe it there has been a lot of work done with the AFN and with the federal government nothing has really changed I guess yet you know we're still waiting for results and sometimes you'll wait so long you forget you're waiting and that has been the case many times in the past and these processes so I really yeah things are different from where they were before but I'm not sure you could say there's change with a capital C Russ do you think there's been some gains in the past four years we've seen you know some some new schools built boil water advisories lifted maybe it's not been enough but has there been some some games in the last four years well I recently heard a regional chief say that it's night and day between Harper and Trudeau meaning that Trudeau for the past two and a half years has been very positive compared to Stephen Harper as Prime Minister but I told that regional chief I disagreed it seems that way on the surface as Paul points out they've added almost twenty billion dollars a new new funding on top of the billions that were already being spent but if you look at AFN signing these memorandums of understanding on fiscal relations and joint priorities you know setting up this cabinet committee it hasn't done anything about the federal government operating in secret and you know through deception through communications our public relations I'll give you some examples the ten principles they issued last last summer they're basically reinforcing the doctrine of discovery the Constitution Act 1867 where the federal provincial governments will continue to dominate us the decision to dissolve the Department of Indian Affairs and create two new departments that was all done in secret without even letting AFN know and our people you know there's a reason why there's going to be two new departments and the government hasn't laid that out yet but it's tied to the new fiscal relations policy they're bringing in which is the other thing that our people should be concerned about so FN hasn't said anything critically about this there's been no critical analysis of these government initiatives and there should be that's a offense job and also bill C 68 and the Fisheries Act BOC 69 the omnibus bill and environment and the National Energy Board there's been no critical analysis of that and I think it's detrimental to our Aboriginal treaty right Rachel you're joining us from Calgary but do you live on Reserve have you noticed a difference in your quality of life for those around you in the past four years totally not at all because again we're talking about disconnect that happens from Ottawa to the region to observe or to our community so if you're talking about what the indigenous want it's important to get on the grass be voices all we ever see is opulent meetings places and a fort and there's discussions happening that are relevant to our future our children to our and if we don't have a and I ate it better Center Pam and Eric that it is representation and it is governance of talking about at the very level of our communities where their collective voice versus the individual higher so until we come together no reconciliation we're talking about voices that need to be her when Ottawa the mainstream only listen to our voice and we need oh wait a grand chief former grand chief you were grand chief through a good chunk of this term was there noticeable change and did you have trouble getting your voice heard in Ottawa I've always you know knocked on the doors that I needed to to have my voice heard but I did notice that you know a lot of the momentum that was built not by AFN but by particular you know people and movements across the country built the momentum to top of the Harper and you know the the AFN seemed to ride on that wave a little bit too a lot of new funding announcements and so forth and some of that money did trickle into the region you know I'll be very honest you know a regional chief Kevin Hart did his best to make sure that some of that funding did make it into into Manitoba you know but at the same time you know what was going on at the AFN table largely in Ottawa was beyond the purview of my responsibilities as running an independent arms-length organization here in Manitoba and I can't say that's the that's consistent across the board because I know in some regions you know the grand chief of an organization is also the regional chief and that's not the case here in Manitoba so there is there is a separation there and I think that allowed me to be a little more critical of some of the things that the FN was doing but it also meant that my mandates were fairly tightly wrapped up when I left Manitoba and went to the AFN table it wasn't for me to open up mandates to create it here in Manitoba to negotiate in AFN table and I think that created some miscommunication at times with some of the leadership bhalo we're gonna lose you here in a couple of minutes and I didn't want to point out before but you have covered the AFN four decades what have you noticed in the evolution of the body that stands out for you well the one key moment I had to send out an email a couple of weeks ago internally because it's been going on for so long it's forgotten but every assembly now is a special assembly because of what Pam referred to earlier we're technically by the AFN Constitution every chief doesn't get a vote even at a just a regular seventh we never mind for voting for national teeth and there was a big fight between Ontario NBC during Phil Fontaine's second term I believe and Phil who was a very creative man a very intelligent man came up with this fix where he called them special assemblies and that may every chief could vote and that's sort of unleashed different political forces you know if there was a vote rep by pop I guess is what a political science teacher would call it or proud you know it if every you only got so many votes per the population per thousands it would be a very different animal so they're not tactically and comply would with the charter of the AFN although there's there's there's nothing wrong it's just they've decided fill many years ago decided to deviate away from that I don't know for us once that debate that if he thinks his chances are better but I hope I'm answering your question Dennis but it's the one thing and I learned this from Russ back when he was a backroom guy advising young reporters that watch the money going into the organization when the government approves of you lots of money goes in when the government doesn't approve of you things get a little bit more difficult and I mean if I was Perry Belgard today I would realize that's an optic problem for him in this campaign the government clearly approves of him and you know historically governments don't approve of Chiefs who are standing up for rights and being difficult for federal officials but that's nothing new that's it's been that way for as long as I think my first one it was in 94 when ovid was running for his last term or he got his last term and it was like that then it's like that now sorry yep quickly I could add a point yep yeah the Charter was set up to have checks and balances the organs of the the assembly are the Chiefs and assembly being the highest decision-making body and then there's what they call the Confederacy of Nations and it's there that they're supposed to be one rep for every ten thousand you know individual status Indians I guess you could say and that's where it became the heads of the provincial territory organizations and the tribal councils but the Chiefs were showing up to vote there as well and they couldn't they were arguing over that as Paul pointed out be seen Ontario had disagreements over that structure so they stopped having Confederacy meetings under fill' and they only held the annual General Assembly and then special assemblies in December for the Christmas party I guess and the problem is the executive committee then doesn't come under the the transparency and accountability that was intended except every six months when there's an assembly so by the time you have an assembly things that the executive did that the Chiefs may want to question are behind in your on to something else so that's a real problem with the lack of accountability of the executive to two chiefs and Russell hold you there we do have to step aside for a quick break Paul appreciate you joining us you've got to step aside yourself and when we return we'll look at some of the comments we received on some of our questions about the AFN over the past week on social media join our conversation now send your thoughts in an email to in focus at apt nga like our aptn InFocus facebook page follow and tweet us at aptn InFocus or call in toll free at one eight seven seven six four seven two seven eight six welcome back we're going to go to social media now and the board I could never get to work to hear what some of you are saying about today's topic and has the relationship between First Nations and the federal government improved during Perry Bell guards time as national chief Gregory says why does the AFN even play a role in the relationship between First Nations and the feds they are sellouts and not elected by the people our next comment says the truth is we the First Nations have to be responsible for our own people in our respective traditional territories can't rely on anyone else to speak on our behalf and I got it to work Daryl says the AFN has done nothing to stop the apartheid and all forms of racism and discrimination against the majority of aboriginals living in mainstream Canada to a comment from Margaret note Trudeau is ignoring the First Nations in BC who opposed the pipeline during the election he loved us all now he stands up in the House of Commons and defends his big business buddies we also asked should the Assembly of First Nations become less dependent on government funding and Ernie says absolutely the AFN needs to move away and be independent the AF ends financial existence depends on funding from indigenous affairs and Northern Development and finally we have a Clive here who says yes as it stands now the AFN is seen as pandering to its political masters who write their paycheck and that's something we're going to discuss here in just a few minutes but first here's how you can get involved in the conversation join our conversation now send your thoughts in an email to in focus at apt NCAA like our apt n InFocus Facebook page follow and tweet us at APTN InFocus or call in toll free at one eight seven seven six four seven two seven eight six and welcome back our guests are still here Pam pulminary former grand chief of AMC Derek Nippon ACK rusty ah Bowie and Ottawa and Rachel and snow joining us via Skype from Calgary I believe we're still waiting for miles but I guess we'll move on at the moment and talk about some of the commentary you hear the about how the Assembly of First Nations is overly dependent on Ottawa something we just heard from there and you know arrests were do you believe the AFN is still relevant I'm guessing so since you're running for the the top job well I'm running a part of the reason is to see AFN restructured in a serious way it needs to be decentralized and there needs to be something similar more to like a United Nation structure instead of the structure it has now that's what I believe even the position of national chief and the Executive Committee I think those need to be looked at and transitioned into something else which is broader with more representatives but I did speak to Delmont or she was on the committee from for the national teen Brotherhood along with Ernie Benedict when they transitioned from the National Indian Brotherhood to the AFN structure and she said the original intention wasn't to have ten vice Chiefs that was something that came about as they started discussing the transition and all of the basically it was organized in one provincial lines every province provincial reorganizations said well we need to have a voice so that's why you have ten voice Chiefs now and that's something that really needs to be looked at I said plus the fact that Confederacy isn't even meeting anymore so that whole charter needs to be rewritten and and there needs to be a role for the people well otherwise the legitimacy of the organization is gone Pam oh you know you have previously ran but it was a few years back Ted do you you still believe that the AFN is relevant today it's not that the AFN is relevant and here's how I explain it to people when our when our rights are at stake and they're always at stake and they always will be it doesn't matter what government is in play we are always going to have to defend our rights and keep them protected the issue is not how do we protect an organization you know an entity that's incorporated and gets funding and it has staff members it's how do we protect our people our lands our resources and our rights our sovereignty as peoples that's the most important thing and if the choice is at the end of the day the AFN as it currently is and it's been in going for well over a decade which is sacrificing our rights or protecting our rights then everyone in the AFN and the building could be gone the whole entity could be closed up but we're still here and and the focus is too much on the AFN in and having to save it and staff it and then you lose focus from well it's actually the First Nations on the ground and our rights that are the most important and how is that organization facilitating what we need on the ground like it used to do when it was the NIV where it was critical of the government where it pushed agendas if all you're doing is hiring on you know a mouthpiece for the federal government that's a waste of money and you know I think one of the true tests of the usefulness of the AFN would be don't have any federal provincial funding and let the funding come the from the First Nations who believe you are making a critical difference who you are adding something to their community and we would see how well or how how much of a lack there would be to AFN funding and I think if if that was the choice right now you would see that it probably wouldn't be an organization I'm going to come right back to that but Rachel just from yourself does the - hold any relevancy for you currently currently right now a stance no because it is just exactly what the other speakers have said it is just an arm of the government they are not advocating for sovereignty they are actually falling into these traps of advocating for Indian Affairs policies like self-government termination cables the rights recognition legislation everything that they are doing is following the federal agenda there is nothing that they're sure people on the RTT right like they should our right to water our rights are you you've seen how funding can dry up at times when you were with AMC there were some some big cuts there big choices to to make I guess for yourselves there are concerns that when the a should there be concerns when the AF n disagrees with government that that fundings going to go away I think that's a very real problem it's not just the AFN it's political organizations that are run by indigenous people across the country these are sponsored agencies of the federal government the money comes to the top down not from the bottom up and as Pam said if we were funding it from the bottom up we would see where the people's priorities are because it would put their money where their priorities are but we were not structured that way and the AMC is no exception to that rule when I was the grand chief and we spoke out against the Harper government against policies that were being driven by Michael Warnock at the time as the leader of the of the department you know we received an 85% funding cut to our to our core funding because we we had lost our utility as an agent of federal policy in in in in Ottawa and we began speaking from a more empowered grassroots roots approach you know and we directed our agenda towards what could bring potentially real change and that didn't resonate well in Ottawa because we were no longer being pulled around by by their agenda and it is tied to the money because as soon as federal government wants to prioritize an issue it will sprinkle some money into a into a circle and co-opt that discussion it's it's a process of being co-opted and that's oftentimes what ends up happening not saying that good people are you know at fault for this because some of our best people are going into those co-opted circles without really perhaps knowing what it is what the real intention behind the money is and we've been in that cycle for four decades and you know Dennis I would just add there's there's a core difference between you know you get funded civil hundreds of civil society organizations all over Canada get federal provincial funding simply getting funding contributions in and of itself isn't necessarily an evil as long as what you're doing is what you're set up to do and there's lots of anti-poverty anti homeless women's groups human rights organizations that have different pots of government funding but they're still advocating they're still being critical they're still pushing the government you know right to the maximum and all of those issues so the AFN itself despite getting government funding is really out of step with all of the other civil society organizations in this country and that shows you that you know aside from the funding there was really something fundamentally wrong at AFN when they have stopped being critical when is anyone heard them really hammer the government for anything in the last decade I'd like to add a point to address if I could yeah Derek mentions a an important name Michael Warnock Michael Warnock was the Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs under harper government for ten years he's the one that led the the hotspots campaign against indigenous communities spying on Cindy Blackstock I mean there's a whole list of things he's done and one of the first things that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did was he appointed Michael Warnock as Clerk Privy Council so he's the top bureaucrat in the country and that was supposed to be temporary you know in January 2016 he's still there and he's behind a lot of what we're seeing with this legislative agenda that's coming forward now and the the whole approach that the government is taking towards indigenous policy and indigenous people should be very concerned about that because you know as far as I'm concerned he's one of the top federal terminators the Trudeau is retained Russ to you if you were to become a elected national chief would you be concerned about the money drying up I guess is one way to put it if you were critical of government practices and legislation well I I'm of the view of my the same as my friend the late art manual when you see the assembly first nations getting a lot of money you know they're not doing their job it's when they're down to a lean and mean machine of just maybe having two three four million to just basically operate then that shows that they're doing their job advocating and a good example of that it was when overed McCready was national chief in 1996-97 when we took on the creche and government on the suppose that Indian Act amendments that were being pushed we convinced the Chiefs to fight back and I think oh it was the last national chief to challenge the federal government you know the National chief since then have not done that as far as I'm concerned things for us I'm going to come back to you about something in a second here but first we're gonna go to a caller and I believe it's Charmaine stick is joining us on the line Charmaine you have some some concerns with the AFN you like to race hi yeah go ahead Charmaine hi yeah I just want to say that as a part of grassroots people we're very left out in terms of ASN their AFN was initially set up to how advocate them speak on behalf of all First Nations grassroots people especially and within the past few years nothing like that has been done for myself for example I've been fighting my current leadership and the government in terms of transparency and accountability which a lot of people don't like speaking of the sm FTA and I recently won two court cases against my leadership to show their financial transparency and accountability and and and through and all through my fight it's been four years I've not once received any help or advocacy from the AFN and no I don't believe they are relevant to the grassroots people first of all they don't go out and they ask the grassroots people if they can speak on our behalf they take it upon themselves to say I am going to speak on your behalf which is not right it's not fair and that's not how it was originally set up I did my own research I had a grandfather who was working in the treaties he taught me very a lot of things in regards to treaties and I don't see the AFN fighting for any of our treaties today it seems more like they're chasing the Replicators that's how those fronted up by the government and all they're doing is slowly signing away our treaty rights and my question to rust and anybody else who is writing is what are you what is your budget plan what is your strategy in terms of honoring our tini holding our own leadership sitted our teachers I being traditionally responsible nobody's taken on the role that we were left by our Creator by our mother earth to take care of each other's people today it's all about money it's all about where's the funding coming from back in the day creator never left their city fight we're losing our natural laws were not following our natural laws not own our natural laws probably a lot of chaos about what's happening right now and so for AFN to be out there saying they speak on their behalf that in itself is very wrong because nobody's ever asked me if they could speak on my behalf or my children you have and I think H the new AFF cheese that's gonna come in I want the vivacious go and be asking the graffiti for estate that speak on their behalf and third comment is fear rather than having us spend hundreds or try and make money to go to see them if they're gonna speak on our behalf they should because it's what not us chasing them around charmagne will will we appreciate you calling in rust maybe before we go to break did you want to pick up on what she was saying there well part of the issue is that Assembly of First Nations is a Chiefs organization not a people's organization their Charter makes it clear that that's that's who the organization is set up for and the National chief has no inherent authority if you look at the Charter the National Chiefs mandates come from resolutions passed by Chiefs and Assembly resolutions passed by the executive committee the Confederacy of Nations which doesn't meet anymore so a national chief has to rely on mandates given through those bodies through resolutions and often those resolutions can be manipulated and are so there are issues around the AFN structure and and who dominates and gets to control the outcomes including the the mandates of a national chief you know how a national chief the style of a national chief is is different from each person whether they're male or female you know whoever gets in that office they're gonna be stuck with the the Charter unless it's changed rust I'll hold you there is we do have to step aside for one more quick break but hang around we'll continue the conversation about the AFN in just a few minutes [Music] [Music] welcome back to InFocus we are continuing our discussion of the AFN and before I move on I should make mention we've seen some comments online up grabbed national chief Perry Belgard we didn't extend an invitation for him not only for this week but for next week in his was scheduled just wasn't working out same as mko grand chief sheila north who will it's also announced she will be running and we did put some calls out to some other regional Chiefs for the AFN unfortunately miles Richardson who's also running hasn't made it to our our studio in Ottawa but just one a point out that we have reached out to some other people with the AFN and and hadn't heard back but continuing our conversation here and before the break we were discussing you know some of the money and how things politically can be tied to that Russa maybe if we could start with you on how the AFN could become more economically and politically autonomous well you know this issues been talked about for four years as far as I can recall and there has been talk about seeking other sources of funding through you know foundations or whatever there's concern about going after corporations because then you're expected to support a corporate agenda they've talked about getting individual support from individual First Nation citizens from communities themselves but really you know it it comes down to why would anybody fund an organization in Ottawa when they have their own issues locally to look after and and that's where the priorities are and I think that goes back to AFN changing from being a lobbying and advocacy body into trying to become something more for example by signing these agreements with government but there are other options I'm sure they could look at in terms of raising funds but I'm sure it would have to be tied to restructuring the organization and reaffirming its original purpose I think former grand chief is this something that you struggled with as your time as a grand chief and have you any recommendations on how to become more economically and politically autonomous certainly I think that first and foremost it's important to recognize that there's a tremendous amount of politics that could be built off the poverty of our people and when you recognize that and you bring you know constructive mechanisms to create potentially economic aggregates within our political infrastructure you need buy-in from the leadership and it has to be a I think an idea that resonates well and sometimes it simply doesn't you know because what's happening in the communities right now for many of our leaders is a daily crisis you see right here in Manitoba you know there's a lot of communities that are removed from their from their homes because of forest fires I don't think the Chiefs are sitting around talking right now about how to make money in the community they're talking about saving lives and oftentimes that is the dominating discussion so when we think about shifting away from reliance on government money to finding more creative solutions we have to be aware of the reality that a lot of our leadership are working in every day and it's a and it's a daily crisis in many cases so I became keenly aware of that as the grand chief at AMC we brought some concepts forward about you know less reliance and and creating own source revenue drivers we open up the the casino at at Carberry for example and that provides a consistent steady stream of revenue that is own source revenue that that we did put towards you know advancing our agenda particularly on CFS and the creation of the bringing our children home office and that to me was one of the one of the the crowning achievements during my tenure I think that more organization should focus on that because own source revenue is going to be the way to - I think drive grassroots driven initiatives and that CFS plan somewhat being put in place here in Manitoba recommendations here as well was in Ottawa so I guess you know what shows what can be done when you're doing it on your own and sub salutely Rachel what would you say to people on why they should even care about this upcoming election for national chief of the AFN as we have heard from stick and I'm thankful to all the other people in the grassroots in the trenches or looking for gas money or trying to make it are in survival mode in their communities and I hear mr. nip enacts comments but I think sometimes the people are fighting their leadership and there there's no money for that there's no money for CH to take on something like when your people and your leadership is trying to duel and designate we are doing funding art sales bake bake sale this is the level that the people are having to do if they're not in survival because many times we're in survival so how do we get into care but somebody's due to Ottawa but our whole day is taken up in survival and that's where I'm community building a collective voice that gives direction is the leadership you don't have a 1 we have any Peter sorry right til I thought you're still talking back ok Pam do you think people out there in the communities that are struggling day to day should care who's elected national chief there would be a tendency to say no because there are so many critical issues on the ground in our own nations however if the FN were just irrelevant and useless then they could say yeah sure no problem the problem is if the AFN is doing more harm than good it's actually using a huge amount of our our own personal energy and resources to stop AFN from allowing the federal agenda to move forward and that's actually making more work for us on the ground who are already strained in resources and that's critically important if on the ground you're trying to do with murder two missing indigenous women and girls and child and family services and and house fires and floods and everything else we don't have the time to be putting all of our effort at holding the FN at bay but to the credit of many First Nation leaders and traditional leaders and grassroots activists behind the scenes what nobody sees they are keeping a Afeni bay at bay they have withdrawn from the AFN or they've sent letters saying you don't speak for us and and they're doing separate negotiations with the federal government on key issues away from the AFN and I see there's you're going to see this trend moving more and more away from the AFN when they don't have to I mean if there was one recommendation anyone could make for the AFN to improve I mean aside from all the process and Charter issues is stop usurping our power like back off and respect our sovereignty in the way that we tell the federal government to respect our sovereignty the AFN is committing the exact same crimes as the federal government and until they stop doing that until they stop speaking for the actual rights holders then the AFN is going to be a hindrance that we have to continue to work against and as so long as they're that way we can't just dismiss them as irrelevant but we have to waste our own limited resources to keep them at bay and and that's not what it was set up to do former Grand chief nippin act we only got a minute here or so but I mean can you is it fair to say the AFN had nothing to do with getting the inquiry and and seeing some of these changes no and I don't think that's what's being suggested I think there's a there's a lot of relevancy and what it's doing right now and I think in its in its best form its facilitating dialogue and it's advocating but it's very worst it's making deals behind closed doors that are impacting the lives of people every day and I think it's a I think going forward we have to really think about how do are we managing expectations do we want and to carry a treaty agenda do we want them to be making Emily use and signing agreements with the federal government on behalf I think that we need an internal dialogue nationally and I don't think the AFN can do it right now unfortunately russa about 30 seconds if you had one recommendation to improve the AFN what would that be I like rough style for national shape well you saved some time there with that recommendation rest of the thanks for joining us from our studio in Ottawa I know you were busy we were all everybody's busy and I want to thank everybody for joining us Rachel and snow in Calgary joining us via Skype unfortunately miles never made it to our Ottawa studio but in studio here as well Pam yes which the flight to be with us so we appreciate that former grad chief me panaka a great to see you and Paul Barnsley who joined us earlier today as well I'd also like to give a big thanks to my producer Charmaine Stryker and everybody else here on the crew who worked so hard to put this live show together every week and we will be back next week for what will be our final show of the season where we're looking to look ahead to 2018 and look back on some of the headlines we'll be talking to trans Mountain the inquiry and a couple other things of course but again thanks for joining us we'll see you back here next Wednesday at 2 p.m. Central I'm Dennis word Joe lead the rest of your afternoon [Music]

Channel: APTN News

Views: 1,830

Rating: 4.5555553 out of 5

Keywords: aptn national news, national chief, afn, infocus

Id: irYIrrfij9U

Length: 51min 27sec (3087 seconds)

Published: Tue May 29 2018